Defended UFC women’s bantamweight championshipUFC 170, Feb. 22, 2014, Las VegasRonda Rousey’s victory over Miesha Tate wasn’t an hour old before the UFC announced she would take on Sara McMann — an Olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling from the 2004 Athens Olympics — in just 56 days. It tied former welterweight great Matt Hughes for the quickest turnaround for a UFC champion and would be the first UFC fight between Olympic medalists.On top of that, it was expected to be Rousey’s toughest test to date. She was exhausted but lacked the ring rust she felt for the Tate fight.

• VIDEO:Ronda Rousey on her ninth professional fight vs. Sara McMannThe game plan was for Rousey to go the body, then — once against the cage — throw elbows to the head and knees to the body. One perfectly placed left knee to the liver dropped McMann to her knees.Referee Herb Dean stopped the fight after Rousey delivered a few punches, though some thought it was an early stoppage.ROUSEY: “I saw (LANG staff photographer Hans Gutknecht’s) picture, and it’s like my leg disappeared. You only see the wrinkle of my knee, the whole part is just gone. And I didn’t even feel like I hit her that hard.

“Because I pulled up her arm on that side, it would have made more sense to knee with the right knee, and I think that’s what she was expecting. Instead, I moved around and hit with the left — right on her liver — and she dropped to the ground. And I hit her like three or four times, unanswered strikes, and then Herb Dean came and got in the middle. And then even she admitted afterward, you can’t train the liver. She admitted it was a fair stoppage.”• PREVIOUSLY:Ronda Rousey — Pro fight No. 8 — defeated Miesha Tate